BioCyc database collection

The BioCyc database collection describes genome and pathway information for hundreds of organisms.

Two databases within BioCyc are highly curated, meaning they have received extensive manual updating with information from the scientific literature. Those databases are EcoCyc and MetaCyc.

The remaining BioCyc databases were generated computationally to predict what metabolic pathways are present in these organisms. In some cases, the databases were refined manually after their generation.

BioCyc databases rely on a software system called Pathway Tools for their initial generation, subsequent updating, and for querying their content. The databases can also be installed locally.

All BioCyc databases share the same database schema, which facilitates comparisons across the databases.